Coal plant feasibility study scotched Labor falls into ‘a trap’

CAMERON TURNS HER BACK

OPPOSITION resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon says the government “deliberately” set a test for Labor over federal funding for a new coal-fired power plant in north Queensland.

Labor and the Greens yesterday co-sponsored a motion to disallow a $3.3m funding instrument for Shine Energy to complete a feasibility study into a proposed power station at Collinsville, southwest of Townsville.

Mr Fitzgibbon said the Coalition, which pledged before the last election to support a business case for high efficiency, low emissions project, could have funded the work “off the budget” instead of giving Labor a chance to try and block it.

“They deliberately made this, what we call a disallowable instrument, so that we have the opportunity to block it and that’s all they want,” he told a Canberra radio station.

“They want the Labor Party blocking the feasibility study and so we never know about the feasibility and they can claim that Queensland could have had a new generator if it were not for the Labor Party. That’s what this is all about.”

He said Labor was not blocking a new coal-fired power plant but opposing the use of taxpayer funds on a feasibility study. Energy Minister Angus Taylor said Labor’s attempt to disallow the funding was “yet another attack on jobs in Queensland by an increasingly divided party”.

“The coal industry is an integral part of our economy,” he said. “It is the lifeblood of many regional communities, creating lasting direct and indirect jobs for Australians.”

Queensland Nationals including Resources Minister Keith Pitt, senator Matt Canavan and MPS Michelle Landry, George Christensen and Phil Thompson have been pushing strongly for the project. However some of their Sydneybased Coalition colleagues were yesterday talking down the future of any new coalfired power projects despite agreeing the study should proceed because it was an election commitment.

The Greens were understood to be disappointed at how Labor handled the disallowance motion, believing they brought it on before working to secure the numbers to ensure the move could succeed.

THE Whitsunday Labor candidate dumped to make way for Annastacia Palaszczuk’s nominee has quit the party and thrown her support behind a former rival.

Tracey Cameron ( above) told The Australian she was furious at being forced to rescind her nomination 10 months after she was preselected by branch members in the north Queensland electorate.

The Premier’s call to replace her with Angie Kelly months out from the October 31 election — a move influenced by factional infighting — has led to the Whitsunday/proserpine branch closing after members’ mass resignation.

Ms Cameron, who initially said her decision to resign was because of a family illness, told The Australian she would support Katter’s Australian Party candidate Ciaron Paterson in his campaign.

“I’ “I’ve been b a member b of the Labor Party for my entire voting life, so it wasn’t an easy decision,” she said. “But the foundations of the Labor Party have been eroded to just about non-existent and that is really tragic because all the people who still support the party still believe in the values it was based on. The general public don’t have a clue that that doesn’t exist any more.”

Ms Cameron, a small-business owner and daughter of a coalminer, said Labor had moved away from its working-class base and was made up of mostly “doctors, teachers and lawyers”.

The seat is held with a slim 0.7 per cent margin by Jason Costigan, who won it for the Liberal National Party before he was expelled from the party.

The protest resignation of the party’s active branch members has left Ms Kelly without the support of seasoned volunteers to back her campaign.